I’m relocating my spindles on my struts. I’ve seen threads about doing this on 911 struts where they have the rosette (or plug) weld. My stock 914 struts don’t have that, they have about a 1” weld between the strut and spindle casting. I’ve ground off that weld but can’t get the spindle to budge. Is there any other attach point, or are they just locked in from 50 years old dirt/rust? I’m sure someone here has lowered their spindles on stock 914 struts……..I just don’t want to put too much brute force into it unless I know all attach points have been addressed. Here’s a pic of the welded area I removed:

Click to view attachment

Too much brute force?

A 20 ton press is the minimum needed to move the spindle bracket and that’s still a big struggle. A 50 ton press is better.

I’ve often wondered about heating the bracket and cooling the strut body but I’ve never seen it done that way. I think the factory does that to install. Would make it pretty easy with the right equipment.

How much will you be raising the spindles? The size of your wheels will dictate the maximum you can go. With 15" wheels you are limited to 19mm or the calipers will interfere with the wheel, assuming stock-ish calipers.

East coaster, and you will want to raise the spindles to lower the car. Best, Mark

From photo I can see you still have welded material between the spindle and the strut body. You need to keep digging out that weld until you can see the separation between the two parts.

With residual weld like that, you are going to need even more press force to “rip” the weld.

Yup as Cairo94507 said. I raised mine 19mm and they rubbed on the rims, I was lucky adding 1/2 inch wheel spacers for flared fenders gave me the clearance.

There are two types of strut tube shapes -- Bilstein vs Koni/Boge. The Bilstein has a straight body, so simply cutting the welds should allow the spindle to slide up. The Boges have two diameters -- lower on the bottom and wider at the top. The spindle covers that transitional shoulder and rests against it so you wouldn't be able to slide the spindle up the tube.

Thanks for the replies! I’m actually going to be lowering the spindle on the tube for a Safari like stance. I’ll try to remove more of the weld and then go at it with some force.

So, it looks like I have Boge struts because the diameter above the spindle is larger than below. I guess I’ll be looking for different struts to modify.

Keep us posted on your Safari type build/look. Mark

l did some early 911 struts at home years ago. Mine had the rosette weld. Once I ground those out, I was able to remove the spindles by holding the spindle and banging the end of the strut tube on the ground lol. I'd definitely use a press next time, didn't have one at the time. For mine, I actually sacrificed the strut tube and used new DOM tubing, and welded the strut top and bottom to the new tube.